Courage Sisters! Bring it on!
08 March 2017
Today is International Women’s Day, a day when the world celebrates women, when in fact most women have not much to celebrate.
Working as lawyer for the ERRC, an organization that fights discrimination against Roma, I encounter stories of discrimination every day. Discrimination that manifests itself in all spheres of society, from housing to health and education, just to name a few.
On this day, dedicating this blog to celebrate acts of courage that bring change, I would like to write about a Romani woman who had the courage to go up against discriminatory structures alone.
KR, a Hungarian Romani woman, gave birth to her baby girl in a public hospital in Hungary. An important and beautiful moment in her and her family’s life that she won’t forget. Unfortunately it is not just the joy of childbirth she will remember, for she is unlikely ever to forget the trauma she suffered because of intimidation by hospital staff.
She was harassed while she was in labour because she is Roma. KR explained: “I was transferred to the hospital by ambulance on the morning of the tenth of February. I was alone in the maternity ward. […] During labour I was shouting because of the pain when the midwife yelled at me ‘if you shout once more I will push the pillow into your face’. […]. Then when I said sorry for shouting the doctor also walked in and said ‘if you had shouted once more I would have called the psychiatrist who would have taken your child away and then you wouldn’t receive the child benefit, because anyway, you gypsies give birth only for the money!’”
Unfortunately, as we found out later, she is not the only one who experienced such harassment in this same hospital while giving birth. When we visited the community where she lives, more and more Romani women came to her house to tell us their stories. But she was the only woman to file an official complaint. No one else did. She alone walked into the local office of the Hungarian Equality Body and brought her own case after being harassed by the hospital staff.
Photo Credit: Bernard Rorke
But why only her? What is holding back all the other women who suffered similar abuses? The long-lasting multiple and intersectional discrimination Romani women suffer from because of their gender and their ethnicity and the lack of adequate response they receive from state authorities. They suffer from discrimination due to racism occurring in the mainstream society, limiting their access to education, employment, and social services and they may also experience discrimination within their own communities because of their gender At the same time Romani women experience intersectional discrimination, when they are targeted with forced sterilisation, segregated in maternity wards, refused care by medical personnel, or need to pay for free services just because they are Romani women. Being surrounded by such deep-rooted discrimination in all spheres of life, having a limited awareness of their own rights, being unfamiliar with legal processes and having faced a lack of response or even further victimization by authorities when they seek help discourages Romani women from reporting abuses.
KR with support from her family, had the courage to report the abuse that happened to her. The Equality Body took her case seriously and the procedure began, when the ERRC had the opportunity to join the proceedings as her legal representative. After holding two hearings, in December 2016 the Equality Body decided that the hospital had violated the equal treatment of the Romani woman and was guilty of harassment based on her ethnicity. This is the first case before the Equality Body involving harassment based on ethnicity in the area of reproductive rights. The hospital had to make a public announcement on the decision and pay a fine.
I met her several times during the procedure, and I was amazed how strong and determined she was to find justice.
She was very emotional about the fact that the hospital challenged her credibility, and made the accusation that her only motivation was to make financial gain from the proceedings. This attitude towards Roma remains pervasive and re-victimization is a common occurrence when fighting discrimination and harassment. This acts to discourage Romani women from reporting abuses.
“I am happy that my truth was finally revealed. I cannot prevent this happening to other Romani women, but I’m sending them the message now to dare to stand up for their rights, to know their rights, and to halt this humiliating, inhuman treatment against them…” KR said after the proceedings.
We need these kinds of messages, and we all need to draw strength from her inspiration: all women with various identities and in diverse context who suffer such abuses right now, or face one or more forms of discrimination around the world. Taking the courage to fight injustice and inequality has never been easy. We need to break the barriers that hold us back from fully asserting our fundamental rights. We will fight and we will prevail!
